Exercise Maitree XV got underway on Monday as an Indian Army contingent departed for Thailand to take part in the 15th edition of the India Thailand joint military exercise, running from 18 to 31 August at the Vibhavadi Rangsit Camp in Surat Thani, according to a defence ministry statement.

Eighty five personnel make up each side.

The Indian contingent draws primarily from 9 Gorkha Rifles, while the Royal Thai Army fields troops from the 3rd Battalion, 25th Infantry Brigade, 5th Division. Company level training will run across jungle and semi urban terrain through the fortnight, with both sides working the same ground rather than parallel serials.

Exercise Maitree XV builds on a two decade partnership

Instituted in 2006, Exercise Maitree has become a fixture of the India Thailand defence calendar, rotating annually between the two countries, per the Indian Army. The previous edition was hosted at the Foreign Training Node in Umroi, Meghalaya, in September 2025.

This year's iteration returns the exercise to Thai soil.

The stated aim of the series is straightforward: foster military cooperation between the two armies and build the kind of familiarity that only repeated joint deployments can produce.

Jungle and semi urban operations under a UN framework

The exercise is designed to sharpen joint counter insurgency and counter terrorist capabilities in jungle and semi urban environments, framed under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter. That framing situates Maitree within the broader family of Indian Army exercises built around UN peace and security mandates rather than purely bilateral training.

The programme combines field exercises, combat discussions, lectures and demonstrations, building toward a culminating validation drill in the final days, the Ministry of Defence said.

Troops on both sides will also exchange operational experience and show off the equipment they carry into joint operations.

9 Gorkha Rifles leads the Indian contingent

The choice of 9 Gorkha Rifles as the lead unit fits a pattern. Gorkha battalions carry a long institutional history in jungle and counter insurgency operations, making them a natural fit for terrain that mirrors much of India's own northeastern counter insurgency grid.

Part of a wider run of India Thailand defence engagement

Exercise Maitree XV lands weeks after the two countries wrapped the 10th India Thailand Defence Dialogue in Bangkok, and follows an Eastern Fleet port call at Sattahip earlier this year. Between the naval visit, the dialogue and now the army to army exercise, the bilateral defence relationship has kept a steady cadence through 2026.

India runs a similar slate of jungle and counter insurgency focused exercises with other partners too, including the UN linked Exercise Khaan Quest with Mongolia, part of a broader pattern of peacekeeping oriented training the Army pursues alongside its bilateral exercises.

What Maitree is meant to leave behind

Beyond the training itself, the exercise is billed as a platform for sharing best practices and strengthening the interoperability, mutual understanding and camaraderie between the two armies. Those are the standard returns cited for exercises of this kind, and Maitree's two decade run gives them more substance than a first time engagement would.

The validation exercise closing out the fortnight will be the practical test of how far this year's training has come, with the contingent scheduled to return once the 31 August culmination is complete.